Reflections
by Rookblonkorules
Summary: Wally must confront his feelings after the events of Failsafe. A Dick and Wally friendship fic with a hint of Spitfire. Two-shot.
1. Chapter 1

**Like the description said, this story takes place after the events of "Failsafe." It's been a while since I've seen that episode so I apologize if anything is canonically incorrect. I'm also operating under the assumption that Wally knows Dick's real name.**

 **This is going to be a two-shot, so another chapter will be coming up soon, hopefully. It's more than halfway written, but seeing as this month is nanowrimo and I have another fic I'm currently working on, it will likely be a couple of days before I have the time to get it finished and uploaded.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice or its characters.**

* * *

Wally could still see it. It was vivid, stamped in his memory. Maybe forever.

He could see it.

He could hear it.

Hell, he could even feel it still.

The cold wind biting at his face, uncomfortable to anyone, but especially to a speedster.

The alien ship in the ice. The ray gun.

Artemis.

There one second.

Gone the next.

M'gann's scream, ringing in their ears, even as his own, silent, screams rang in his. As his mind cried out that this couldn't be happening and Artemis can't be dead.

She can't be gone.

His own fury, his rage, his overwhelming grief and a sense of loss, even though he wasn't clear on what it was he'd thought he'd lost.

He and Artemis weren't close.

They weren't friends.

Frenemies was a more accurate term, though Wally wondered if maybe even that was being a little too generous.

But she didn't deserve to die.

Simulation or not, Artemis should never have died.

And he would never forget that.

Wally tried to tell himself he didn't care, shouldn't care, to the extent that he did.

But he did.

He was surprised, confused. He wasn't supposed to care this strongly.

And he wasn't ready to face the why behind that either.

His foot drummed against the floor, a million times a minute, and, given that he was a speedster, that wasn't much of an exaggeration.

"KF?" He was startled out of his thoughts as Dick, dressed in civvies, sunglasses masking his identity as always, materialized beside him. "You okay?"

"What?" Wally startled, before glaring at the wall. "Yeah, sure," he said. "I'm fine."

Underneath the sunglasses, Dick raised a skeptical eyebrow. "You sure? Because you don't exactly seem whelmed."

Wally stiffened, ready to snap.

Dick lay a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, we all saw what you did out there on the ice," he said softly. "But you reacted… differently."

Somehow, Wally ended up on the defensive. "What are you getting at?" he asked, more harshly than he'd intended.

Why the hell was he so defensive?

Dick didn't even twitch. Nothing less was to be expected from the protégé of Batman. "Nothing." He leaned next to Wally, arms crossed, but there was nothing defensive about his posture. He was casual, nonchalant. "So… you want to talk about it?" he tried.

Wally gave him a sideways glare. "I found you said this was 'nothing,'" he accused.

"It's clearly not nothing," Dick said, spreading his hands out. "Otherwise you wouldn't be sitting acting so… not you."

Wally glanced around at the rest of their teammates. M'gann was currently enveloped in a crushing hug from Captain Marvel. The way her shoulders shook, he knew she was crying. Connor was sulking and Kaldur looked… distant. Artemis… Artemis was still sitting on the berth, her knees drawn up her chin, her arms wrapped around them fiercely, head ducked down.

Wally swallowed. "Doesn't look like anyone else is exactly acting like themselves either."

"And you're my best friend," Dick pointed out. "Of course I'm going to be checking to see how you're doing."

"And what about you and how you're doing?" Wally shot back. "Why's it all about me?"

Dick raised an eyebrow. "It's not. I just… saw the way you reacted there. Just wanted to check and see that you were okay."

"And I'm fine," Wally repeated. He refused to even glance in Artemis' direction again. He refused. Still, though, there was that ache, there was that loss, and he didn't _understand_ it, couldn't even begin to guess why it was there (or maybe he could and it was something he didn't want to face). "So you can just drop it, okay? I'm fine."

The second eyebrow joined the first in a perfectly arched curve. "Wally, we just saw our team, our friends die. It doesn't matter if it was real or not real. It was real to us then. It's okay to not be fine."

Wally wasn't sure what he was supposed to say. Okay, you got me, I'm not fine. It didn't really seem to work.

So instead what he said was, "I just need time." Maybe it didn't sum up exactly what was going on with him, but it was the truth. Or at least the part of the truth he was willing to give out at this point.

But Dick accepted it. They all needed time to get over this. To adjust. And Wally would tell him eventually. They always did. It was the reason Wally West was the only person in the room who knew the identity of Batman and Robin, because Dick trusted him.

And it made Wally feel like even more of a crummy friend, because he wasn't sure he could tell him. Especially when he wasn't even sure what was going on with himself.

"It's cool," Dick said softly. "We all need time."

And that was when Wally realized his friend was acting more distant than he'd originally thought.

And he-Wally-might feel terrible, but Dick… Dick had sent several of them to their deaths.

Sure, they might be alive now (okay was another matter entirely), but that was the kind of knowledge that could weigh heavy on one's soul.

"Are you okay?" Wally asked, pretty sure it was a question he'd already asked and one which he had not received an answer to.

Dick shrugged. "It's rough. But I'll get over it." His face was tight and Wally wondered if he was telling the truth.

That would make two of them though, he realized, feeling slightly guilty.

This whole scenario hadn't exactly worked wonders in the honesty department.

Wally didn't push the question anymore.

He wondered if that made him a bad friend. It wasn't like Dick had given up on him this quickly.

But then again, he'd probably have better luck asking M'gann on a date (because Wally was a flirt, yes, but he wasn't stupid) then getting an answer out of the Boy Wonder that he didn't want to give.

They stood there for a moment, side by side, neither one of them talking, and then the Batman's voice broke their silence, calling Robin to him.

To debrief likely. Discuss what happened. What went wrong… Who knew how they handled things? Maybe Dick would open up to his mentor more than he had to him.

Dick straightened reluctantly, made to say something, changed his mind and obediently followed his mentor.

Which left Wally alone.

His gaze found Artemis again. She was no longer huddled on the berth. Instead, she was sitting with her legs dangling over the side, looking very much like she wanted to kill someone.

The Green Arrow, it seemed, was wisely giving her some space, (so why was Wally considering otherwise?), though he did cast a look or two in her direction.

Wally was sure he'd never seen him look so helpless before… not that he'd ever had many direct encounters with the man.

He realized he was still staring and, surprisingly, Artemis hadn't noticed him, hadn't snapped at him, hadn't marched over to demand to know what he was looking at.

It was disturbingly not Artemis-like at all, and Wally found himself again questioning why he cared.

And once again, he found himself short an answer.

* * *

 **So what do you think? Is Wally going to be man enough to talk to the girl? :D**


	2. Chapter 2

**I should probably start this off with an apology that it's take so long to get this written and uploaded, but it's been a pretty busy month.**

 **I'm not entirely satisfied with this chapter... maybe it's because it took me so long to write it, but I hope that those of you who have waited so patiently aren't disappointed.**

 **Disclaimer: Young Justice and characters are property of DC comics and do not belong to me.**

* * *

"What are you looking at, Baywatch?"

Wally's jaw fell open and he found himself speechless, a phenomenon that didn't occur frequently (or ever, really) when it came to him.

More than that, he had to force himself not to bristle.

Come on, West, he chided himself. Talking to girls was supposed to be easy for him.

(On the side, he found himself wondering how his legs had brought him here. Mutiny. And then he wondered what Dick would say if he voiced that out loud.)

Artemis glowered at him. "I said what are you looking at?" she repeated.

And Wally responded with a big, fat, "Uh."

Which was, without a doubt, the most humiliating thing that had ever happened to him since that one incident in fourth grade?

He was Wally West.

He always had a comeback, a pickup line, something to make the girls laugh. They were supposed to fall for him. They weren't supposed to glare at him in a way that made him think they could vaporize him in an instant.

He wasn't supposed to dry up when the time came to talk to the one girl who didn't make him go all weak in the knees.

If only Dick could see me now.

But, thankfully, mercifully, his friend was with his mentor, at the other side of Mount Justice. He hadn't sent so much as a glance in Wally's direction.

Artemis glared at him. "Think you're going to get some kind of show?" she asked, wiping her eyes, and glaring at him all the harder.

"What?" He realized they hadn't exactly been on the best of terms but… did she seriously think he was enjoying this? That he liked seeing her brought down a level?

"No! I… I…"

For exactly two seconds, Wally considered running. Running and forgetting about this stupid conversation (which it really wasn't. It wasn't even one half). But he was trapped. He knew that.

And Wally cursed his ridiculous half a brain that was forever encouraging him to stick his foot in it.

"I just wanted to see if you were…" he began lamely, shoulders hunched. He toed the ground cautiously. If you were what? Okay?

Didn't he know how stupid that sounded? Especially coming from him?

Artemis narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"Why do you care?" she asked and Wally had to admit that maybe that was a valid question.

Because we're teammates?

Because what kind of psychopath wouldn't care when someone was killed-turned to dust-right before their eyes?

"Maybe because I saw you die," was what he really said.

"From what I heard, you saw the lot of us die. Why should it be any different?"

Did she have to make this so difficult? Couldn't she see he was trying to be _nice_? To _her?_

"You were the first." He actually cringed at that. Had he really just said that out loud? He was talking about somebody's death, not his first kiss!

"Yeah, thanks for bringing that up." Artemis snorted, crossing her arms. "I'm _fine._ You can go bug someone else if this is so hard for you."

Wally narrowed his eyes. If that was how she wanted to play it, then fine. No skin off his back.

"Fine," he said shortly and turned his back on her. Maybe Dick had already finished his report…

He wasn't expecting to get called back.

"Wait!"

 _Keep walking,_ he told himself.

But he didn't.

"I'm sorry, okay?" Artemis said. Her voice still sounded harsh, but then it softened. "I just… I didn't mean to snap at you."

That certainly stopped Wally short. The chances of _Artemis_ , the girl who called him _Baywatch_ of all things, apologizing… and to _him_ … well, Wally hadn't exactly done the math, but he'd say it was pretty slim to none.

"But thanks," she said, "for caring."

Wally shrugged. He felt no desire to preen, to bask as he otherwise might have. Instead, he suddenly felt unexplainably embarrassed. "Why wouldn't I?" he asked, making an effort to sound nonchalant. He was sure it didn't work.

Dick made it seem so effortless.

"We weren't exactly friends before all this," Artemis said. "And everyone else seems like they have their own problems to deal with." Her eyes widened as she likely realized how self-pitying and bitter she sounded. Her spine straightened with a suddenness that must have hurt. "No! That's not what I…!"

Wally coughed. "It's… fine," he said, awkwardly. Wally glanced at his teammates. "I think… I mean… it's shock." He realized how lame that must have sounded and his voice tapered off at the end, before dying all together.

"Yeah," Artemis said and there was no hint of sarcasm. No " _well, duh, genius."_

It was probably the shock, he reckoned.

It might have been fake, a simulation, a _training exercise_ , of all things, but it had sure as hell _felt_ real.

Wally shuddered.

Artemis shifted and he wondered if she were wondering how they got stuck in this moment.

He realized he was too.

"Wally!"

Wally startled, turning to the face the newcomer.

Late as always, but Wally had never been so happy to see his Uncle Barry.

He took one last glance at Artemis. "Er…"

Artemis shook her head. "You can go. I'm fine."

Wally's shoulders slumped. "Okay." He took a look at his uncle, before glancing back at her, trying to think of one last thing to say.

He drew a blank.

"Hey, Baywatch."

Her voice called his attention back to her.

He turned, seeing the wicked smirk that looked more like herself.

"Watch out for yourself more. I heard you weren't too hot out there yourself."

Wally grinned back at her. "I lasted longer than you, didn't I?"

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